An assessment of the potential of drylands in eight sub-Saharan African countries to produce bioenergy feedstocks

Watson, H. K.; Díaz‐Chavez, Rocío

doi:10.1098/rsfs.2010.0022

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…GIS-based land mapping identified suitable land where well-managed intensification of, or conversion to, bioenergy feedstock would have a low risk of causing detrimental effects (Watson and Diaz-Chavez 2011). Excluded from this potentially suitable land stock were all areas important for biodiversity, carbon stocks, environmental services, food security, rural livelihoods, and all protected areas.…”

Section: Project Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

From complex systems analysis to transformational change: a comparative appraisal of sustainability science projects

et al. 2012

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Sustainability science is being developed in constructive tension between a descriptive-analytical and a transformational mode. The first is concerned with analyzing problems in coupled human-environment systems, whereas the second conducts research on practical solutions to those problems. Transformational sustainability research is confronted with the challenges of generating actionable knowledge, incorporating knowledge from outside academia, and dealing with different values and political interests. This study approaches the theory and promise of sustainability science through a comparative appraisal of five empirical sustainability science projects. We exemplarily appraise in how far sustainability science succeeds and fails in yielding solution options for sustainability problems based on an evaluative framework (that accounts for the particularities of sustainability science). The selected sustainability projects cover a range of topics (water, bioenergy, land use, solar energy, urban development), regions (from coastal to mountainous, from rural to urban areas, in several countries in Africa, Europe, and South and North America), spatial levels (from village to country levels), and research approaches. The comparative results indicate accomplishments regarding problem focus and basic transformational research methodology, but also highlight deficits regarding stakeholder participation, actionable results, and larger impacts. We conclude with suggestions on how to fully realize the potential of sustainability science as a solution-oriented endeavor, including advanced collaborative research settings, advances in transformational research methodologies, cross-case generalization, as well as reducing institutional barriers

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Section: Project Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

From complex systems analysis to transformational change: a comparative appraisal of sustainability science projects

et al. 2012

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“…In 2010, the Society ran a meeting at Chatham House to look at issues of land-use change, sponsored by the Energy Biosciences Institute at the Universities of Berkeley and Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), the Porter Institute at Imperial College and Chatham House itself. The papers by Davis et al [3], Khanna et al [5], Hosseini & Shah [7] and Watson & Diaz-Chavez [8] arose from the discussions and debates that were held then.…”

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confidence: 99%

Biorenewables, the bio-based economy and sustainability

Templer

Wielen

2011

Interface Focus.

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This issue of Interface Focus is being used to introduce readers of Interface to research into the use of plants to supply mankind with renewable energy and material resources. This field is given the general name of biorenewables research, but over the past few years it has come to public attention through media coverage surrounding one type of biorenewable product, liquid biofuels. Biofuels research lies at a complex set of interfaces, where the worlds of research and innovation meet those of business and politics. This is a difficult arena in which to work at the best of times, but when the world is urgently seeking to develop truly sustainable energy resources to combat climate change, the quality of scientific advice will be at a premium. Mankind can ill afford to make mistakes in the technologies it pursues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Because crops use photosynthesis to convert atmospheric CO 2 into the organic compounds that are used to generate biofuels, it appears that biofuels should be able to eliminate anthropogenic CO 2 emission from internal combustion engines. This simple idea has been at the heart of the arguments in favour of exploiting plant biomass for liquid fuel. Of course this picture is an oversimplification, since the complete process of generating the fuel is, in general, not free of greenhouse gas emissions. The promise of biofuels as a climate change mitigation technology, therefore, rests upon the technology's ability to maintain very low levels of greenhouse gas emissions in its production.Brazil has over 35 years of experience from its development of the science, technology and economics of sugar cane bioethanol production. Here, it is widely accepted that the process life cycle of the biofuel results in a sizeable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with respect to petroleum fuel. In large part, the success of sugar cane ethanol rests on the productivity of the cane and the simplicity of the processing. Other sugar crops and starch crops can and have been used for alcohol-based fuels in other parts of the world, oil-bearing crops have been used to make biodiesel and scientists and technologists are now looking at ways to convert woody material into alcohols. (These technologies are described in two of the papers, i.e. Landeweerd et al.[1] and van Zyl et al.[2]) Some, but not all, of these fuels are calculated to produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than their petroleum equivalent. It is the potentially widespread production of biofuels with increased greenhouse gas emission that should be avoided, but can we identify these readily?As is so often the case, this question is not an easy one to answer and many of the papers in this collection discuss the issues that scientists, engineers and economists are addressing to make good estimates. In particular, it has become evident over the past few years that there are significant and potentially long-term greenhouse gas emissions owing to the change in land use when biofuel feedstocks are planted. There are both direct effects t...

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Ensuring Sustainability of Bioenergy in Practice

Farioli

2013

Handbook of Sustainable Engineering

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An assessment of the potential of drylands in eight sub-Saharan African countries to produce bioenergy feedstocks

Cited by 8 publications

References 10 publications

From complex systems analysis to transformational change: a comparative appraisal of sustainability science projects

From complex systems analysis to transformational change: a comparative appraisal of sustainability science projects

Biorenewables, the bio-based economy and sustainability

Ensuring Sustainability of Bioenergy in Practice

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